In The Midst of Crisis, Ride The Rapids

We are belonging to Christ as those that have accepted Christ and now, we are sent by Christ. This is awesome, we have so much power at all these moments. I read the news and everything, I feel powerless, don't you kind of feel a little powerless feel like everything's spinning out of control and it's just like we're just going down this these Rapids and there's a waterfall on the end of it, and it's like we can't get out and we can't stop the water.

That is how it feels, and yet God says through Paul that we belong to God, and we've been sent in the midst of this crisis to do his work.

Here's the crazy part, and forgive me this is a completely flawed illustration, it just popped in my head so but I'm going to share it with you.

When Becky and I were in in Bend Oregon we decided to do some rafting and we didn't have rafts, so I got our twin mattresses that we use, inflatable twin mattresses, from our camping and I filled him up and I said "we're going to go down the rapids in our twin mattresses. I had a kayak paddle, she had nothing. I had her tethered to my ankle on a long rope and the rope was tied around her twin mattress, so she had no control whatsoever. Completely dependent upon me, but I really didn't have a lot of control either because I'm on a twin mattress going down Rapids.

Here's the thing, I've never laughed so hard and had such a good time in my life. I probably have I've laughed hard a lot in life, but I mean I was really just turned into a puddle. I couldn't even navigate or steer as we went down seven or eight Rapids like this, and it was just hilarious.

You know in a sense we're on Rapids kind of in twin air mattresses all of us. We don't have a lot of control; we don't even feel like we've got a paddle, and the thing is, there people around us all around us going down the same Rapids the same raging torrent of a river and they're screaming bloody murder, they're just out of control, they feel completely hopeless and helpless, but because we belong to Christ, because we know the beginning from the end, because we know that we're secure in Christ, we're actually able to care for people along the way as we're going over the falls.

We're going over the falls. I hate to say it but I'm not talking about America, I'm saying that that God is going to bring his wrath and his punishment upon earth. That is fixed in God's eternal economy, so we are in that rapid. Sometimes it gets worse than others and it backs off and it's Placid, and we think oh we're in good times, these are good and then the Rapids come again and then we hit another rough patch in the river, and we think we're going to die and then it gets Placid again.

I don't know what's coming. I really can't tell you except what prophecy says, but I want to tell you that we're safe and secure and there are people around us that need us to be a calming influence and extend to them the hope of Christ. We're not going to get out of this, but we can extend the hope of Christ of not only peace and confidence as we go down the rapids, but a knowledge that in the end the rapids aren't going to finish us off. We have an eternal destiny with Jesus Christ. We hope you've been encouraged by this video short.

If you enjoyed this short message, be sure to watch the entire sermon here https://youtu.be/vAaKGBh8_i0.

We would love to hear from you and any practical application this short message has for your life. Are you riding the rapids in your own life? Feeling out of control? Or are you riding the rapids with a calming influence that helps those around you?

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